February 6, 2013

#1 is Michelle Obama's ass. #4 is a bird laid an egg. And both of these are stories that I blogged yesterday. The First Lady's ass attracted 197 commenters here on the blog. I blogged the bird story too. In the comments, Inga made fun of the WaPo headline saying that the bird had given birth, and I note this morning that the headline has been rewritten, and now it's producing a chick. But there we were, talking about whether it's silly to say a bird gave birth.

Give birth is an interesting expression, even as applied to mammals. Which is my point: What is interesting this morning? Something tells me it's not politics.

Meanwhile, even politicians seem to know we're tired of dreary politics. Apparently, Republicans want to win us over with "happy talk" — #3 on that list:

At a retreat for Republican leaders last month, former House speaker Newt Gingrich told them to “learn to be a happy party” and a “cheerful” one, and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said they should be a party “that smiles.”...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor took this don’t­worry-be-happy strategy seriously, and in a heavily promoted “major” speech to the American Enterprise Institute [that]... began with an uplifting anecdote about the Wright brothers and quoted the inspirational words of Emma Lazarus. He spoke from a lectern decorated with a foam board carrying the slogan “Making life work for more people”....

Decorated with a foam board... That's like a bird giving birth. The WaPo is bumping up the rhetoric inanely. Even when mocking the GOP for its strained cheeriness, they're goosing us with inappropriate but exciting words.

I posit it's not entirely that we're tired of politics. I think we retreat to the banal to catch a breather from gut-wrenching stories like the Newtown school shooting, the Benghazi attack, the Aurora movie theater shooting, etc. And those of us who favor limited government and freer societies have been hit upside the head enough by the Obama admin. Let's make fun of his wife for awhile.

We're people. We have varying but finite levels of tolerance for the truly nefarious things that occur in the world. News dominated by banality means nothing really awful, on a grand scale, has happened recently.

@The Farmer - That's not actually true. Well, it may be true in churches that are shrinking, but not in churches that are growing. The problem with contemporary church music is the same thing that is the problem with everything contemporary - 99% of everything is crap. Of the tens of thousands of hymns that were composed in the 18th and 19th centuries we now sing a few hundred. No one will remember most of the current crop a few years from now, a few will survive.

@Thomas - Probably not telling you anything you don't know, but essentially no one in the congregation sings anything that's not on a downbeat. I think they like a little syncopation on the verses, but they just listen and lip sync. They will sing the chorus if its straight quarter notes - subtle as disco.

Moscow has had the most snow in over 100 years this winter, the polar bears have doubled in numbers, and the South Pole has a third more ice cover over it than 10 years ago... and we are told this all proves that CO2 concentrations that went up by a third over the last 10 years are a green house gas pollution by the high priests of the UN Malthusian World Religion.

In a world that is so far addicted to government sponsored fantasy, nothing said in the media outlets is modulated to truth anymore.

LilyBart hits the central "dilemma" of those who vote for a collectivist statist totalitarian government: there IS NO "personal space." EVERYTHING is political. The reason that the Israeli Kibbutz fell out of favor is that they were HIGHLY socialistic--right down to group discussions as to what color one should paint one's bed-room (I am NOT making that last up) Socialism--hell, ALL statist forms of government--simply grinds the individual down over time. We're just beginning to get a taste of our future..

Bob R said...That's not actually true. Well, it may be true in churches that are shrinking, but not in churches that are growing.

I don't know about that. Our parish is growing at a pretty good clip. The average age is mid-30s. The difference in response between a hymn like How Great Thou Art and anything written by Marty Haugen is huge.

If the country were well run, people shouldn't have to think about politics, except to perform civic duties like voting. P. J. O'Rourke compared civic involvement to taking out the garbage. It's something you have to do once in awhile, but to make it the center of your life is a little kinky.

So how did we get to the point where we have to pay close attention to what Washington is doing all the time?

** We gave the unaccountable and faceless bureaucracy the power to legislate through the regulatory process. And, naturally, it uses this power to preserve itself.

** Both Democrat and Republican elected officials can't seem to resist the temptation to bribe their constituents with their own tax dollars.

** The progressive Marcusians who took over the Democrat party are unwilling to listen to or work with their political opposition as a matter of philosophy. And, they view every social phenomenon through the lens of politics; forcing their opposition (the rest of America) to defend everything all the time.

America finds itself deeply fucked. We need to look at the Second Amendment again, not in terms of the specific right it protects, but in terms of WHY the Founders felt it was necessary to enumerate it. Americans who love their country and their neighbors are going to have to think about when to engage in civil disobedience. What are we willing to go to jail for, or even die for?

The crises we find ourselves in today were completely avoidable. They were created by the people we elected. We need to begin to think the unthinkable.

Like the Chinese curse, we find ourselves in interesting times. Damn it.

How Great Thou Art is absolutely one of the best. And of course it helps your point that the high point of Chris Tomlin's How Great Is Our God is the quote from the old hymn. But the fact that a lot of people like traditional church music doesn't prove your original point that "nobody" like contemporary church music.

We have totally stopped watching the "news" on television. [note the scare quotes]. Our mornings consist of companionable silence or music in the background while we look at what is happening in the world using the magic of the internet. Conversations between us of interesting articles, actual news, world wide news discovered and laughs provided by the wide range of opinions and quirky humour out there. Requests for that next cup of coffee and discussions between us on our own lives and businesses.

We are still informed and our stress level has gone down. Instead of being immersed in the cesspool, we are able to view it from a reasonable and detached distance.

No constant and relentless drum beat of propaganda, negative news, Sandy Hook until you want to puke.

We became calm and detached from the political news with the realization and acceptance that we are totally fucked as a nation and that there is nothing that WE can do about it. Our political lackeys don't care about us. There is no such thing as an honest election. It is a bitter joke. The government actively wants to keep us subservient or incarcerate us or kill us if we try to get out of line.

The realization and acceptance that all we can do is to try to take care of ourselves, family, friends and neighbors has calmed and centered us.

There is NO POINT in getting worked up about politics since we have no ability to do anything about it. Out of our control.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,The courage to change the things I can,And wisdom to know the difference.

The "don't worry be happy party", the RINOs who want to crush any opposition to the status quo, the fascist Liberals, the Green Enviro Nazis, almost all of the Members of Congress, the President and his fat assed bitter beard, the local politicians, the judiciary, the DOJ.....can all go to hell. We will not miss them.

We are focusing our efforts on things that WE can control. Immersing ourselves in "political" news and propaganda shows is debilitating and draining to the soul.

Tilting at windmills is exhausting. I will leave that to those who have the energy and means. We will donate to and help those who CAN make a difference. We will pick and choose wisely (we hope) and support those who have the skills and punish quickly those who are merely pretending.....Republican party....are you listening.

Right now, it is all about self survival.

And, yes. I do think Obama is gay. The guys at Hillbuzz who should have the best gaydar ....seem to think so.

I would make the point that not only is the public ready for diversion, it serves the interests of our Elite Media Overlords to feed it to them. That way they can avoid reporting as much as possible on the disastrous administration that is the result of their demagoguery.

The breeziness of NPR news these days, for instance, is remarkable. Hip and cheerful for every item. La-la-la happy face attitude for covering everything from continued Hurricane Sandy homelessness to economic stasis from now through 2016, wahoo.

Compare the "color and tone" to any report out of 2004, haha, you would be astonished. The trademark somnolence is now a smiling Calm. Back then, it was a terse one, Dark and So Serious.

Specifics? Unravel the lies of their report the other day in Fed actions against Standard and Poor. An Occupy Wall Street intern must have put it together, why this company is out to Make Money! The hapless Federal government is at great pains to keep them under control! Haha. No mention that the Feds threatened them about lowering the nation's ratings, no mention this admin has an interest in hiding the Decline, and attacking the messenger has been working so far.

Glad you're not giving up. Libertarians and conservatives need to write a new political playbook; one that leverages the internet. I'll probably blog about it anon.

As for Barry being gay: There is the phenomenon of gay men speculating whether certain sexy somewhat androgenous celebs are gay. The old queens speculated about Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt forever. It was probably wishful thinking. But Obama? He doesn't set my gaydar off -- he's more of a Steve Urkel type, but with his father's abusive attitude toward those whom he perceives as not being his social equal.

Obama's sexual orientation doesn't interest me as much as his use of marijuana. How does he get it into the White House? Where does he smoke it? Does the Secret Service help him get it in, or turn their backs on his supplier? This fascinates me.

Evidence: Obama throws like a girl, he wears mom jeans, he rides a girls bike, he does not know how to hold a gun, his wife is more masculine than he is, he acts like a passive-aggressive bitch with congress and the supreme court.

“If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don't bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV on primary day. By all means stay home if you want, but don't bullshit yourself that you're not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard's vote.”― David Foster Wallace, Up, Simba!

In a few years all of the "little people" will start writing books about the Jug Eared Jesus. Secret Service agents. White House ushers. White House chefs. Waiters.

I think they will have a hell of a lot to reveal about the Obama.

If you read similar accounts you find that the Presidents and families that were loved by the little people: Trumans, Kennedy, Reagan, both Bush families. Disliked if not hated: Johnson, Nixon, Carters and Clintons.